The Paper House

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 2: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧

"𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒. 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑗𝑜𝑏 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟."

Finally, I've got away from the worldly noise. We are all gathered in this house, to live here for five months. Five months we'll spend studying how to pull off the heist. And our teacher will be of course, The Maester.

We are of total 8 students. We barely don't know each other but the Maester wants to keep it like that 'til the end of the heist. Nobody should use their names and no personal questions nor relationships.

We were told to pick up a name which is something simple. Like biblical names. Hoping we'll be saved in heaven by using them.

So, that's when I start calling myself Eva.

The one at my back who's looking at me now is Mr. Cain. A wanted man all over the world 27 heist, jewelry store, auction houses, and vehicles. His biggest score, 434 diamonds. He is like a shark in a swimming pool. You can swim with him but you can never be calm. He was in charge of the heist.

"𝐸ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑚! 𝐸ℎ𝑒𝑚!"

The one coughing is Mr. James. The first thing he dug was a mine in Surigao. Later he figured out that he makes more money by digging upwards. 6 fur shops, 3 watch shops and a bank. He's an expert with any industrial tool.

Behind sir James is Lucas, his son. Drugs, busted teeth, broken ribs. He's the king of bar fights. A pure hot blooded. Perfect for a heist.

Adan. He's my weakness. He is like the Mozart of computers. He programmes since he was six and knows everything about alarms amd elctronics. As for everything else, it's as if he was born yesterday.

And there at the back we have the twins, Jude and Elijah. Even the most sophisticated plan needs soldiers and what's better than two Cebuano. Maybeeee... they can think. But frankly, we'll never know.

"𝐻𝑚ℎ𝑚𝑚ℎℎ𝑎ℎ𝑎"

Deborah. A hardened optimist. She has been counterfeiting banknotes since she was 13. And now, she's our quality control manager. She might be crazy but she's a lot of fun.

Lastly, "The Maester". No criminal records, no registration. Hasn't renewed his ID since he was 19. For all intents and purposes, a ghost. But a very intelligent ghost.

"𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦, 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟𝑠. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑠. 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙, 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐. 𝑊𝑒'𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦"
"𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑, 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑚, 𝑤𝑒'𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑏𝑒 𝑎 𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑡."

The Maester was really an inspiration to us. I can say that he's too kind and most of all, really smart. He's a little weird but it makes him more appealing.

As of now, I'm curious of what is our main purpose here. I'm not good at waiting. So I asked the Maester.

"𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔?"

"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑜 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑃ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠"